Equality in dress, Islamic style
Italy moved closer to banning Islamic face veils in the country when a parliamentary panel approved Tuesday a measure making illegal the wearing of burqas, niqabs and other ethnic face covers.
The House Constitutional Affairs committee approved the bill backed by Premier Silvio Berlusconi‘s People of Freedom party and the right wing Northern League party, sending it for voting before the full House in September.
Under the draft law, violators will be fined $213 to $426 or community service. Those who force others to wear burqas will be penalized severely with a $14,200 fine and one-year imprisonment.
Silvio Berlusconi. Image via Wikipedia
Proponents of the bill have cited security concerns for endorsing the proposed burqa ban. A social survey also indicates that most Italians do not approve of wearing face veils in public because it degrades women.
via Italian panel okays bill banning face veils | AHN.
More here.
The only thing I don’t like is seeing here a party called Lega Norte. A party one of whose members have supported ETA murders (“We welcome a firecracker or a bomb when if comes to defending freedom“) and some others have supported Anders Breivik’s ideas.
Related articles
- Italy approves draft law banning burqas in public (thestar.com)
- Italian parliament commission approves burqa ban (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Italy drafts law to ban burka (telegraph.co.uk)
- Italy moves toward face veil ban (bbc.co.uk)
- Italy approves draft law to ban burqa (guardian.co.uk)
